If I’m being honest, while I always loved The Beat (or, more technically here in the States, The English Beat, not to be confused with an American band I never cared about called The Paul Collins’ Beat), I didn’t really care too much about General Public. Sure, they crafted one ubiquitous single, “Tenderness,” but, for whatever reason, they lacked the jittery pulse of the Beat. I was also a huge fan of that first, eponymous Fine Young Cannibals record, although not so much the second one.
Ironically enough, I actually saw General Public perform, acting as a seemingly incongruous opening act for The Fixx in about 1984, but don’t remember anything other than “Tenderness.” I cannot remember if they played any Beat stuff. I have absolutely no recollection of ever seeing the video, much less hearing the music, of the single below. Someone posted it on Facebook this morning, though, and I was immediately struck by it — not by the sing-songy pop hook, though, so much as the scenery. Based on the vantage points, it seems this video was filmed from within the confines of a top floor of the Puck Building on the corner of Lafayette Street and East Houston, effectively the border of SoHo. This would date back to about 1984.
You can still see the gas station and the car wash. The Adidas building hasn’t been erected, as yet, nor has NYU started building that gigantic space station.
General Public went onto make two more albums after this, although neither yielded any particularly memorable singles. The Beat reformed here and there, but lead singer Dave Wakeling had a bit of a falling out with Ranking Roger, who sadly passed away in 2019.
The Puck Building was home to SPY Magazine for a while. I attended a wedding reception there and some corporate shindig or another back in the distant `90s. These days, the view from this window would be obstructed by the giant, terraced building they building in the footprint of the gas station and the since-closed Puck Fair tavern.
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